


Job Opening

by Zai42



Series: Gore/Kinktober Prompts [28]
Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Bad Ending, Cruelty, Hurt No Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-29
Updated: 2018-10-29
Packaged: 2019-08-09 11:34:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16449170
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zai42/pseuds/Zai42
Summary: Melanie gets promoted.Prompt: Hooked





	Job Opening

Melanie had tried so hard to say no, when Martin offered her the position. "Never in a million fucking years, and I hope you never find another one," was what she had wanted to say; instead she had just managed to ask him why, all soft and anguished, her voice choked. He had looked at her with pity.

  
"You're the only one I trust," he had said. "You've been here the longest, and with Basira gone, you're the only one left with the proper...experience."

  
The mention of Basira had been unfair. It had felt like something Elias might have said.

  
The sun had gone down long ago, and Melanie had watched from behind her closed door as all her naive little archival assistants had left for the day, to catch a movie or write poetry or go dancing with friends. No--probably not that last one. They weren't in the practice of hiring people with friends.

  
"Melanie?"

  
"Not 'Archivist'?" Melanie asked hollowly, without looking up to see Martin hovering in her doorway. He still hovered, Beating Heart of the Magnus Institute or no. Still slipped into Martin Blackwood on occasion. Melanie hated it.

  
"Just Melanie," Martin said, and sat in the chair in front of Jon's--in front of _her_ desk. "Are you all right?" he asked, and he sounded apologetic, and Melanie hated that too.

  
"I miss Jon," she said bitterly.

  
Martin seemed taken aback, but he was good at messy emotions, so he was soft when he replied, "I miss him too."

  
"That's different," Melanie said, "you _loved_ him." She relished it, the little twinge of hurt that ran through Martin at that. "I hate him, but at least when he was alive he was--I wasn't--" She broke off, a frustrated noise in her throat. "He was _useful,"_ she finally bit out. "And now he's just dead, and that isn't any good to anyone."

  
"So you hate him for being dead," Martin said, and Melanie wanted to scream at how much he sounded like Elias, sounded flippant and amused and above it all.

  
"I hate him for trapping me here," Melanie snarled. "And you, too."

  
"No more than you already were," Martin said. "And you're...you're safer like this."

  
"How did Jon die, again?" Melanie asked, and bulldozed over Martin's soft _don't._ "It was the Web that finally got him, wasn't it? A nice little snack for all those venomous little spiders--oh, but you _like_ spiders, don't you?"

  
"Stop!" Martin sounded like Martin again, hurt and teary-eyed over his lost love. Melanie wanted to sneer and keep going. Instead she just felt bad. "I--I am sorry, Melanie," he said, and Melanie turned her eyes to Jon's--her--desk. "I didn't mean for this. For any of this."

  
"Go away," Melanie said, because it was easier than _I know._

  
Martin hovered, and Melanie refused to look up until he was gone, the door snicking quietly shut behind him. 


End file.
